Here is the curse of our age: We have kissed ourselves into complacency.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, it’s worth recalling the 40th anniversary of arguably the most talked-about kiss in television history. Combine these two events, and one thing becomes clear: the high-impact television kiss has all but vanished.
There was a time when a kiss, delivered by the right person to the right person, could set the entire country abuzz and profoundly reflect our national identity crisis. This moment came on February 19, 1972. On that Saturday night, near the end of an episode of the most popular show on television, “All in the Family,” Sammy Davis Jr. planted a kiss on the right cheek of Archie Bunker, the super-bigot played by Carroll O’Connor. This split-second moment instantly became legendary.
Davis, a dazzling Vegas-style star who played himself in the episode (having left a briefcase in Archie’s cab), might not have been the epitome of the black power movement, but he was perfect for highlighting the era’s hypocrisy. John Rich, the episode’s director, who passed away in January, revealed in a 1999 interview that the kiss was his suggestion to strengthen a weak ending.
The setup was flawless, building on earlier jokes in the episode about Davis’s contractual obligation to kiss white celebrities and the foundation of narrow-mindedness Archie had constructed over 33 episodes. This foundation was ready to crumble under Davis’s simple yet profound gesture.
While the 1968 Captain Kirk-Uhura kiss on “Star Trek,” compelled by telekinetic aliens, caused a stir, the “All in the Family” kiss did more than that; it called out a country that, by 1972, routinely celebrated black performers and athletes but remained full of people who thought and acted like Archie. This episode and its iconic kiss have consistently appeared on lists of top TV moments.
Fast forward to a recent Wednesday night on ABC. In a single hour, various kisses were exchanged that might have once shocked the nation. On “Modern Family,” Phil’s potential real estate client, played by Greg Kinnear, caused turmoil with his habit of kissing people on the lips, including Phil’s wife, his school-age children, and a gray-haired old woman—twice! Then, the Valentine’s-themed episode of “Happy Endings” featured both gal-on-gal and guy-on-guy kissing, and yet, the world barely noticed.
It seems like ages since a television kiss could capture our attention. Madonna’s notorious kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 MTV awards show now seems like a mere attempt to grab headlines, insignificant compared to the “All in the Family” moment.
Today, no imaginable kiss seems capable of stirring our national emotions. On channels like Animal Planet, people kiss animals regularly, from catfish on “Hillbilly Handfishin’” to snapping turtles on “Call of the Wildman.” Our collective indifference to these acts is alarming.
The absence of iconic, emotion-stirring moments like the Archie-Sammy kiss is disheartening. A world unmoved by a television kiss is a world devoid of deep emotion.
But there is hope. To ensure future generations experience the jolt of a controversial smooch, we could implement a federal ban on kissing on network television, much like historical bans on certain words and body parts. Including cable and premium channels, constitutionality be damned.
It’s been 40 years since the “All in the Family” kiss; perhaps we need another 40 years of no kissing to restore the power of this once-mighty gesture. If we act now, around 2052, a brave network show could slip in a kiss and rock the world the way “NYPD Blue” once did with a little bare flesh. Until then, actors, please keep your lips to yourselves.
